Our Review

In the Heart of Italy, Ignotz seems one of those restaurants thats OK with being just OK, perfectly content serving Italian chow of middling quality in a pleasant enough room with pastoral paintings and pix of famous paisani on the walls. Stuffed shells, advertised as baked, seemed microwaved, not terrible, but not great. Mussels in an unadventurous marinara were fresh and far from bad; shrimp a la Agnes sounded good--simply shrimp in breadcrumbs with garlic and oil--and were tasty enough, though three for $8 was not such a good deal. Much on the menu can be turned out Vesuvio style: chicken, of course, but also shrimp, whitefish, salmon, pork chops, and veal. Floating in clear sauce of garlic and parsley, the veal was acceptable. Our last dish was best, a chicken cacciatore, very flavorful, with a pleasing range of sweet, sour, salty and savory, and tiramisu also provided an unexpected eleventh-hour uptick, but overall Ignotz was pretty much mediocre.